Photograph: Maxim Shemetov/AP
Here is Jonathan Wilson’s match report:
Full-time: Sweden 1-0 Slovakia
It was a diabolical spectacle but Sweden won’t be bothered about that: they got the result they wanted thanks to Forsberg’s 77th-minute penalty. They deserved it for their slight improvement in the second half - Isak, in particular, showed flashes of real class in an otherwise humdrum side - while Slovakia must regret being so negative for most of the match. Now Slovakia will probably need to get at least a point from Spain in their last group game, while Sweden will take on Poland knowing that victory could send them to the top of the ground.
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90+5 min: Kucka opens fire from nearly 30 yards. It’s a good strike, but not on target.
90+4 min: Dubravka comes up for a Slovakian corner. Can he do an Alisson?! No, the ball doesn’t reach him.
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Sweden substitution: Krafth on, Forsberg off
90+2 min: Bengsston needlessly concedes a corner. SloDuda delivers. Kucka gets his loaf to it at he back post, but only because he shoved a defender. Free out.
90 min: Slovakia will have at least five more minutes in which to find an equaliser. “My six-year-old has gotten into Pokémon lately,” reveals Kári Tulinius. There’s a character called Jigglypuff, who beats opponents by putting them to sleep. Sweden are football’s own Jigglypuff.” In fairness, Slovakia played like they’d a big cup of warm milk before kickoff.
Sweden substitution: Svensson and Bengsston on, Ekdal and Augustinsson on
88 min: Weiss booked for tripping Claessen out of frustration.
87 min: Danielsson slides in to make a fine clearance after Koscelnik curled in a low cross from the right.
Slovakia substitutions: Hancko and Duris on Hubocan and Hrosovsky off.
83 min: So if Slovakia don’t equalise in the remaining minutes, they’re probably going to need to get a point off Spain in their last group game to progress.
82 min: Another brilliant run by Isak, past two and into the box. A backtracking defender does enough to poke the ball away from him but it rolls to Claessen at the edge of the area. He tries to place a powerful shot into the corner but it’s deflected wide.
80 min: Duda booked for bawling at the referee after a freekick is given against him.
79 min: Duda overhits a cross as Slovakia try belatedly to pose a threat.
GOAL! Sweden 1-0 Slovakia (Forsberg pen 76)
Forsberg slots a perfect penalty into the corner, beyond the reach of an agile dive by Dubravka.
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Penalty to Sweden!
Dubravka scampers out of his goal but is beaten to the ball by Quaison and he takes him down! The sub ran on to a cute reverse pass by Isak.
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74 min: Slovakia sit deep, watching Sweden stroke the ball around impotently in front of them. Something’s got to give. Or not.
71 min: Superb play by Isak! He received the ball in the centre circle and then showed a rare blend of skill, cleverness, strength and balance as he meandered his way forward, leaving three defenders in his wake before thrashing a low shot from the left-hand corner of the box towards goal. Dubravka got down to paw it away, and a defender completed the clearance.
69 min: After that burst of pressure from Sweden, Slovakia are trying to deflate proceedings again by knocking the ball about harmlessly. The onus is on Sweden to do something about that ...
67 min: Lustig hooks over a big cross from the left. Isak outjumps Satka but can’t keep his header from eight yards below the bar.
Slovakia substitution: Haraslin on, Pekarik off
Sweden substitutions: Claessen and Quaison on, Olsson and Berg off. “This match is all the evidence you need that 24 teams is too many,” writes Mick MacKenzie. “But just as I finished writing that the Swedish keeper made a brilliant save from a header. And not to be outdone so did the Croatian keeper! So I’m grateful for small mercies.” Evidently Mike is so rapt by this game that he’s forgotten who’s playing.
62 min: Isak bangs a low shot from 25 yards just wide. It took a nick off a defender on its way so it’s a corner. Forsberg bungles the delivery
61 min: From the resultant corner, Isak heads the ball from beyond the back post back into the danger zone. Danielsson nods over from close range!
60 min: See! Sweden have got the message at last: Larsson hares down the right and delivers a lovely cross. Augustinsson powers a header towards goal from six yards ... and Dubravka makes a brilliant one-handed save!
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59 min: “For reasons that I cannot recall, I actually went to this match, Sweden-Turkey in the second round of group games at Euro 2000, in Eindhoven,” begins Patrick Finch. “It remains by some distance the most boring game I have ever been to. For The Guardian, Ian Ross summed up the 0-0 draw as, ‘ a hound of game... a wretched game [which] crawled along without harmony, without style’. He wasn’t wrong.” And on that note: we have action! A nice freekick curled in from the left and Kucka gets a meaty header to it, forcing Olsson into an excellent one-handed reflex save! It wouldn’t have counted because Kucka was offside but hey, we’ll take it as an encouraging sign.
55 min: Forsberg plays a dinky one-two with Isak ... and then tries to do the same thing again with someone else ... but there was no one there. Slovakia casually clear.
53 min: This match is so exciting that Yury Plokhotnichenko is following this here MBM from inside the stadium in Saint Petersburg. He has just sent me a photo of two men sleeping in seats near him.
50 min: Duda skips past Berg and lets fly from 20 yards. It whizzes just over the bar but that’s one entry on the highlights reel, at least. Meanwhile, it seems I may have downplayed how bad England-Algeria was: “Fortunately I only saw the first half as I left the bar I was at to see Echo and the Bunnymen live at the Upload Festival in Bolzano (South Tyrol, northern Italy),” recalls RIchard Harman. “They came out a bit later than scheduled so they could watch to the end. Ian McCulloch’s first words on hitting the stage were: ‘Err, did anyone watch England-Algeria? What a load of fuckin’ shite’. He wasn’t wrong. The gig was great, though.”
48 min: Corner to Sweden. Larsson with the out-swinger. It swings all the way out of the box, and Sweden work it back to their keeper. They’re trolling us, aren’t they? “Watching England vs Algeria at the 2010 World Cup is one of the worst things I’ve ever done to myself in 30 years,” confesses Ed Chukwurah. “A game that managed to stand out in a rather dull tournament as perhaps the dullest.” I had forgotten that ... which means it can’t have been all that bad ... the real stinkers leave scars.
46 min: No substitutions during the break, because why would either manager want to change, eh? You’d think Janne Andersson, in particular, would want to stimulate an improvement. If Sweden don’t win here, and fail to beat Poland, he could find himself out of a job, and fielding calls from Daniel Levy.
On the BBC, the pundits have taken the smart option: instead of analysing that first half, Ashley Williams, Alex Scott and Micah Richards are singing songs.
“Sweden are sitting back and defending against a team that only needs point to qualify. I’m genuinely puzzled as to what their game plan is. Maybe they are hedging their bets on beating Poland?” _ Nigel Njanina
“You rightly name check Switzerland v Ukraine in 2006 but if memory serves the Switzerland’s tie against France in the group stages of that tournament was even worse. I sometimes think I’m still watching it.” - Gerry Scott
“I’m thankful for how boring the game is. Yesterday, while watching the gripping match between Ukraine and North-Macedonia, I came close to stabbing myself a few times while making dinner. I’m also making dinner now, and at no point has my attention been split between the food and the match.” - Kári Tulinius
“Re: your comment on 33 mins [“This is turning into one of those games that you can’t take your eyes off simply because you feel like it owes you something spectacular to make up for the torpor you’ve already endured”] This reasoning is how I ended up watching - and worse, making my then-colleagues watch - Switzerland and Ukraine engage in a piece of existentialist performance art about tedium, suffering and the phenomenology of time for 120 minutes plus penalties in 2006. IIRC, even the penalties were rubbish.” - James Humphries
Please feel free to share your wounds with the group. Are you following this while still feeling fragile after watching Ukraine-Switzerland in 2006? Do you still suffer flashbacks to Republic of Ireland -Norway in 1994? Dare you cast your minds back to Republic of Ireland- Egypt in 1990?
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Half-time: Sweden 0-0 Slovakia
That was atrocious. But there’s a morbid fascination to see whether the second half could be worse.
45 min: In the last 10 minutes Sweden have been treating Slovakia like Spain.
42 min: An attempted clearance is charged down, and Slovakia work the ball to Hamsik at the edge of the area. He tries to guide a sidefooter into the net but lifts it over the bar. “I take some umbrage with Sweden being called a minor footballing nation by Anis,” howls Alexander Wennmann. “Having won one silver and three bronze medals in the World Cup, and a shared third place in the Euros, we’ve got two more medals than England. Making England an absolute minnow?” It’s certainly a point, Alexander. But I can’t help feeling it would carry more punch if your team weren’t boring the backsides off a whole continent right now.
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40 min: Sweden seem to have played themselves out. Slovakia have come on relatively strong in the last few minutes, moving forward in slow, methodical fashion. But there’s been a chronic lack of sharpness in the final third by both teams so far, and nothing that could fairly be described as a good chance.
37 min: Hamsik’s corner is met beyond the back post and headed back into the danger zone. A bit of pingpong in the box before Sweden whack clear.
36 min: A hoof downfield by the Swedish keeper A few headers. Some midfield scuffling. Yawn,
33 min: It’s got to the stage that we’re effectively chasing our losses here. Which is to say, this is turning into one of those games that you can’t take your eyes off simply because you feel like it owes you something spectacular to make up for the torpor you’ve already endured. Sorry, no way to dress up this muck.
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30 min: Slovakia are able to venture forward for the first time in a long time. Mak and Duda each send over dangerous crosses, but both times Sweden defend them well.
27 min: Augustinsson raids down the left before being dispossessed by Koscelnik. But then he battles to win the ball back and send in an inviting cross. Berg does well to beat the defender to it but skews his shot miles off target. “As much as I love the romanticism of an encounter between two lesser known nations, you can’t hide the fact that both these sides suffer from a genuine dearth of quality,” notes Anis Aslaam. “One team plays an ultra rigid 4-4-2 that’ll make peak Roy Hodgson proud while the other team, though utilising a smart 4-3-3, appears to have players hoping to have an Indian summer before vanishing into the twilight zone.”
25 min: The game is now being played almost entirely in the Slovakian half but at a very modest pace. I’d say set-pieces look like Sweden’s best chance of scoring, but most of their deliveries have been shoddy so far and Slovakia have dealt comfortably with the others.
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23 min: Olsson booked for chopping down Kucka to stop a Slovakia counter-attack before it really got going.
21 min: After another poor corner delivery, the ball comes to Larsson about 15 yards out. He tries to lash it back towards goal but it’s blocked by a defender.
18 min: A good spell of pressure from Sweden. Lots of probing around the Slovakian box, but no hint of a breakthrough yet. “Players are continuing to go to the floor after every tackle but refereeing’s been of a pretty high standard throughout the tournament, don’t you think?” asks Jonathan Salisbury. I agree that the referee’s eagerness to let the game flow, and their suspicion of cheap falls, has been great. And I think it’s already having an effect and players are not, in fact, diving at every opportunity, though there are obviously still some incorrigible offenders.
15 min: Isak is very clever in his movement. He keeps flitting about to make himself available for a passing from midfielders and, once he gets the ball, is able to either hold it up to bring others into play or make a dart forward. He looks to be the most likely source of excitement.
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13 min: Larsson fires over the freekick. Lustig, under pressure from a defender, heads over the bar.
12 min: Isak flips the ball into the right-hand channel . Berg chases after it and is then shunted to the ground for no good reason by Hubocan. That gives Sweden a freekick in a useful crossing position, a little in-field from the corner flag.
10 min: Sweden haven’t shown any ingenuity either, by the way. It has been a decidedly tepid opening.
9 min: Slovakia are having plenty of the ball but so far haven’t shown any sign of the sort of ingenuity that will probably be needed to penetrate their well organised, athletic opponents.
7 min: Now it’s Sweden’s turn to deliver a corner, which Isak won after his cross was put behind. Forsberg’s corner is a waste.
5 min: Thanks to a mighty jump, Kucka is able to meet a well delivered out-swinging corner from the left, but he heads just over the bar.
3 min: Larsson, having come infield from the right, receives the ball a few yards outside the Slovakian box. He turns sharply and fires off a shot that takes a deflection off a defender, making Dubravka’s save slightly more awkward than it would have been. The keeper spills it but tidies up immediately.
2 min: So much for letting them stroke the ball around! Olsson rushes up to press Skriniar ... and carries on into him after after the defender laid the ball off. “As I’m working from home, this is a perfect game to watch with one eye while at the same time trying to finish up my work before the weekend,” announces Michal Pac Pomarnacki, spokesman for a generation. “Let’s hope for a decent game, but not too action-packed, I’ve still got some work to do!”
1 min: Slovakia kick off, and Sweden also them to pass the ball gently around in their own half, easing their way into the game.
The Slovakian players give a full-throated rendition of their national anthem. And if the first online translator I came across is anything to go by, the song contains a forecast that this could be their time. Be warned Swedes. “That Slovakia of ours has been fast asleep so far, but the thunder’s lightning is rousing us .... the hour has struck.”
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The teams exit the tunnel and into the arena in saint Petersburg. There are fans dotted all around the stadium but there are far more empty seats than occupied one.
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“Great to see Juventus’ Kulusevski is on the bench for Sweden after recovering from Covid,” cheers Brian Cloughley. “Could have a big part to play if Janne insists on removing Alexander Isak after an hour again. Come on Sweden! And Scotland!”
“Call me a nerd or a football tragic but I have a real soft spot for games like this,” hurrahs James Crane. “In the same way that South Korea have found themselves in a 2pm Group F clash with Nigeria in at least the last six World Cup finals (will check my notes later), this is a prime cut Euro equivalent - two of the lesser-spotted teams with all to play for, getting the spotlight to themselves for a couple of hours, this is the essential tapestry of tournament football…let’s soak it up!”
Teams
Janne Andersson has sent out this same starting eleven who frustrated Spain in their opening match. Slovakia’s boss, Stefan Tarkovic, has made two alterations to his lineup, bringing Koscelnik and Hrosovsky into midfield instead of Haraslin and Hromada.
Sweden: Olsen; Lustig, Lindelof, Danielson, Augustinsson; Larsson, Olsson, Ekberg, Forsberg; Berg, Isak
Subs: Bengtsson, Claessen, Cajuste, Helander, Johnsson, Jansson, Krafith, Kulusevski, Nordveldt, Quaison, Sema, Svensson
Slovakia: Dubravka; Pekarik, Satka, Skriniar, Hubocan; Kucka, Hrosovksy; Koscelnik, Hamsik, Mak; Duda
Subs: Benes, Bozenik, Duris, Gregus, Hancko, Haraslin, Hromada, Kuciak, Lobotka, Rodak, Valjent, Weiss
Refere: D Siebert (Germany)
Preamble
Hello and welcome to Day Whatever of Euro2020. Sweden and Slovakia may not be tipped to go far in this tournament but here’s the thing: if either of them win today, they’ll be through to the next round, where they could have have another winnable tie (against either Austria or Ukraine, most likely). So a path to the quarter-finals is starting to open up and, before you know it, one of these dark horses will be on a highway to Hellas 2004.
Sweden showed their defensive fortitude by holding Spain to 0-0 in their first match; today they’ll be looking to show they’ve got a bit of fire up front, too, and that should not be too tough with an attack led by Alexander Isak. Not that Slovakia will be particularly worried about facing him, given that they managed to subdue Robert Lewandowski in their first group game, when the beat Poland 2-1. With Spain to come in their last match, the Slovaks will be intent on getting the points they need today. They have never beaten Sweden – in fact, they managed to lose 6-0 to them in a friendly four years ago – but they’ve never had an incentive this big before.
Kick-off: 2pm BST.
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